ESN COUNTRIES:

ESN ESTONIAESN POLAND

olunteeringVMaking a difference

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V Eduk8V SocialErasmus V EUCIS-LLL

12th Edition - Autumn 2011

EditoralDear reader,This new academic year opens with, in the Erasmus Student Network, three core ideas: mobility, volunteering and non-formal education.Mobility? Because this is what we stand for. Volunteering? Because this is who we

are. Non-formal education? Because this is what we learn while being in ESN.

What does it mean to be a volunteer? It means that we dedicate our time and energy to a cause we believe in and we want to fight for. In ESN, this cause is mobility – and especially the experience of an aca-demic mobility within the framework of the Erasmus programme. We aim to make the Erasmus experience the best experience ever – give to others what most of us have experienced as well.

What does it bring us to volunteer to make the mobility experience the best expe-rience ever? It brings us fun. It brings us friends. It brings us laughter. But it also teaches us many things and is as such an experience for life: the experience of volun-teering that imparts us with a greater sense of personal and community responsibility and greater confidence in our own ability to make positive changes in society.

Most of us could experience Europe during their Erasmus exchange. The ESN experi-ence allows us to go a step further and to continue to enjoy the feeling of European belongingness and to actively create it or participate in its reality. We are volunteers and stand up for the society we wish to create.

Volunteering allows us to shape our society by being active citizens – it also allows us to learn a lot thanks to non-formal education. This form of education is “not formal”: it doesn’t take place in a class with a teacher, homework and exams. Its framework is rather free, and most often it happens with peers, without noticing that we are lear-ning. It is a form of learning by doing, although it is accompanied, mostly by peers: by ESNers.ESN sections provide and conduct non-formal education – very often without knowing this word. Almost all volunteers will say that they learned a lot during their voluntee-ring experience. The challenge of the upcoming years in ESN is to increase the quality of this non-formal education. We can reach this goal by increasing the awareness ESN Sections have of NFE and their potential to deliver it, by creating tools for them to learn more about NFE and benefit from it, such as the Section Guide or events such as Eduk8, through workshops where a high quality NFE is delivered, etc. This is one of the big challenges of this year and the upcoming ones, so that our volunteers benefit from fun and friends, but also learn in a positive and friendly atmosphere – and know how to highlight in the future what they learned.

What is impressive with volunteers is the generosity that they show. ”- Why are you so generous? Why do you give your time for “nothing”? Would non-volunteers say.

- Because while giving, we receive so much”, would any volunteer reply.Thumbs up for the generosity that volunteers show and thumbs up for their conti-nuous motivation and involvement! ESN is proud of you.

Tania BermanPresident ESN AISBL

Editor in ChiefJosefin Svensson

AuthorsTania BermanMichel ErlandsenRemo UghiniKatja KrohnAlfredo CalìTiina NõulikEero LoonurmKärt MaalinnIvo LillemaaKea Kiviraijuja Kaisa LindenburgMariann MölderDorottya GlatzLeo SmithJosefin SvenssonIga NowakJulia TrawińskaOla KubiczekKatarzyna PachlitaHubert WodzyńskiKarol Ślusarski Noé ViedmaDespina VachariNurlan AhmadovKadir KelesNicoleta Popa

Language editors:Leo Smith

Design:Michael MaginJosefin Svensson

Photo: Emilia ZyskowskaKatja KrohnESN Kapa AthensEuropean Youth Forum

The theme of the next issue:

Now & Then

If you want to write an article, please send it to:express@esn.org

ESN InternationalRue Hydraulique 15B-1210 Brussels, Belgium

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TABLE OF CONTENTSSocialErasmus 4

ESN Eduk8 12

EUCIS-LLL 26

EVENTS & ERASMUS EXPERIENCES

SHOW YOUR COUNTRY!

SOCIALERASMUS CHARITY CONCERT

FELLOWSHIP OF CULTURES PROJECT: AKDENIZ!

THE AMAZING NATIONAL EVENT OF ESN GREECE

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SECTIONS IN THE SPOTLIGHT

ESN ESA CYPRUS

AEP-ESN PADOVA

ESN LISBON

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ESTONIA

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ESN ESTONIA

ESN TUT IC

ESN TLU TALLINN

ESN TALLINN

EBS INTERNATIONAL

ESN TARTU

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POLAND

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ESN POLAND

„BLACK SILESIA” IS FULL OF POSSIBILITIES!

THE DELEGATES’ MEETING CRACOW 2011

WE’VE PAINTED THE MONUMENT!

EUROPEAN DAY & THE SCHUMAN PARADE

DO YOU KNOW POLSKA?

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EXCHANGE YOUR LANGUAGE!

PORTUGESE: ALGARVE, O OÁSIS DE PORTUGAL

EN: ALGARVE, THE PORTUGUESE OASIS

AZERBAIJANI: ARTIQ VAXTDIR...

MÜBADILE EDEK VE DEYISEK...

EN: IT IS TIME ALREADY …

LET’S EXCHANGE AND CHANGE…

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29ESN INTERNATIONAL

OCTOBER INTERNATIONAL BOARD DIARY

II YOUTH CONVENTION ON VOLUNTEERING

RECIPE

MEET THE BOARD 2011/2012

NEW BOARD - NEW HOUSE

QUIZ

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Social

Projects & Partners

SocialErasmus - ESN’s new flagship project for 2012

by: Michel Erlandsen

Although SocialErasmus was founded in Poland in 2009 and the project grew bigger and became an international project of ESN in many countries it is not yet focused enough. Therefore ESN International decided to make it the new flagship project for the year of the 25th anniversary of the ERASMUS programme in order to emphasise the importance of social inclusion and to give the international students even more support from the Erasmus Stu-dent Network.

ESN received a grant from the Euro-pean Commission in order to develop the SocialErasmus project into a bigger and more centralised project with the participation of all the ESN countries. Through the grant, ESN is able to wel-come a new project coordinator who will organise activities and meetings, make a project plan and will be in con-tact with all the national SocialErasmus coordinators. Michel is Danish and he recently arrived in Brussels and has al-ready begun his work. Throughout the year he will plan the actions, stra-tegies and guidelines for future events, to make

it easier to understand what belongs to SocialErasmus and what does not. The first important meeting will be the So-cialErasmus coordinator meeting in Ja-nuary 2012, where all National coordi-nators will meet, share best-practices and problems related to the project; furthermore the participants will re-ceive professional training on How-to-organise-SocialErasmus-events. The next big step in the upcoming year is the SocialErasmus week in May, which will be closely related to the 25th an-niversary of the ERASMUS program-me. Together we can show Europe that mobility not only means traveling or studying abroad, but also active enga-gement in local communities. Through our activities we will show that the international students are willing and happy to give something back to their local hosts. During the SocialErasmus week activities will take place all over Europe and afterwards a video and a brochure will be produced to show the awesomeness of ESN’s projects. Last but not least a final conference will be organised in September 2012 to eva-

luate the year and to plan how the project will be developed in the

future to ensure it a long and prosper life in ESN.

Throughout the past fourteen months Michel has gone from ESN buddy, local board member, local webmaster, local Vice President, Vice National Repre-sentative, Eduk8 trainer and now In-ternational SocialErasmus Coordinator. His work in these positions has given him profound insight into the network and given him a fine understanding for the work being carried out at the local, national and the international level. Although he has not been on ERASMUS, he has participated in a one year student exchange program in the US, awarding him with an experience for life and an expanded cultural un-derstanding. Furthermore he has been working with communication and pro-ject management for various compa-nies for the past four years providing solid practical experience to the Socia-lErasmus Project. He has a very enthusiastic and posi-tive approach to the tasks ahead and in cooperation with all of the member countries he will promote and develop SocialErasmus as the flagship project

of ESN in 2012Michel said: „I am happy to have been granted this opportunity to devote my time fully to the

SocialErasmus project, which I find to be of huge importance to

the network, the local communities and the International Students. The work that is being carried out by vo-lunteering students has direct impact on the people involved and society in a broader prospective. ”

NameMichel ErlandsenNationalityDenmarkLanguagesDanish, English, German

Coordinator

ErasmusSocial

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Social

Projects & Partners

SocialErasmus - a broader perspective

By Remo Ughini

24 years ago the Erasmus programme was founded and for almost 23 years ESN has helped exchange students in various ways. All of us know the im-portance of both institutions and the tremendous effect it has on young people’s lives. Living in a different city in a different country with different people we see the world and oursel-ves with different eyes. Nevertheless, contact with the local community out-side university is mostly limited to the supermarket cashier and the landlady. This has always been a bit of a dilemma for ESN. We help students with integra-

tion, but by doing this we also enforce the barrier to the local community. The initial idea of SocialErasmus in Po-land was to improve the reputation of ERASMUS students. It happens though that many SocialErasmus events bring international students in contact with parts of the community they would otherwise never meet and thus help to solve this dilemma. International stu-dents meet orphans, the elderly; peop-le bound to the hospital beds; children at a local school etc. and share some of their

Erasmus experience.During the last one and a half years, the project has developed into one of the biggest and strongest projects within our network without much promoti-on. Still we have the feeling that we’re only just starting and are looking for-ward to the upcoming year and many new developments. The grant, which ESN recently received and having a full time person functioning as a coordina-tor will raise the visibility of the project inside and outside ESN. The highlight of this year will be the SocialErasmus week with activities all over Europe. So keep your ears open and keep organis-ing amazing SocialErasmus Events!

Blood in the netBy Alfredo Calì

What does network really mean? It’s so simple… It means to work in a “net”… The words mean the same. And when does a network work?? When different people pursue the same goal, using different things and tools, sharing ex-periences and feelings all together. Is that not true? And this is exactly what happens to people who approach the Erasmus world, ESN in particular, stu-dying abroad. Coming back home you gain a great “desire to do” and you will never stop. The Erasmus experience is made for this goal. Last year I was in Valladolid, Spain, where the ESB section is very active, involving the Erasmus students partici-pating in many activities. Juan, Angie, Nacho, Santi, Zahira, and the others made us grow in ESN spirit. How?? They shared with the Erasmus stu-

dents their international experience and their desire to be an ESNer. In that way the Erasmus students mature and return to their country with a new soul, an international soul, and the lack of this which is the largest cause of the famous post-Erasmus depression.How to overcome post-Erasmus de-pression? Join your local the ESN Asso-ciation.A lot of friends of mine did it, even where the ESN section didn’t exist, like in Cologne, Germany, which Valerija founded. From common experience, the spirit of an individual grows. And so following the example of Valladolid, the ESN Catania, enriched by a mem-ber who has experienced something so special, decided to collaborate with another external association from the students’ world. The reason? To dona-te blood.

The cooperating association is the Avis, the largest in Italy in this field. Now all members of ESN Catania, after finishing the big job of organizing the national event, returned to the field to sponsor and develop this event of solidarity. The intent is twofold, to donate blood for people who need it and teach people from the city and the community as a whole, that the foreign students in par-ticular and the students in general, are an added value for a modern society.

So on 25th May we put our hands to-wards serving the community in Cata-nia, rather, our arms and gave it all a bit ‚of our Erasmus blood’, always so active, fun and full of life, which sure-ly will be good for everyone. And then what? We tried to give birth to a con-tinued collaboration with the Avis and why not, try to bring all sections of the national network to collaborate ... who knows ... next year there will be a nati-onal day of ESN blood?

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Events & Experiences

SocialErasmus Charity Concertby ESN ITU & ESN EXISTANBUL

The Social Erasmus Charity Concert aimed to bring together Erasmus stu-dents and local students in a social responsibility project. To achieve this goal, a two phase social project was chosen. With the income from the first social project, the second step would become a reality. The first part, Cha-rity Concert by Şekerasmus occurred on 17th May, 2011 and the Donation to a Village Primary School and Leu-kemia Institution happened on 10th June, 2011. This Social Erasmus Pro-ject was carried out by two universities ESN ITU (Istanbul Technical University) and ESN EXISTANBUL (Istanbul Univer-sity) and Social Erasmus Music Band, ŞEKERASMUS consists of Adrien Hus-son (guitar), Ricardo José Faro Gómez (guitar), Victor Skardelli (bass guitar), Helen Junker (soloist), Isabell Hubert (soloist) Edwar Xie (violin), Sigmund Brielmaier (violin), Hae Ji Park (key-board), Sylvia Kriese(drum).

Preparation phase: started with fin-ding instruments from our friends and Şekerasmus had rehearsals for six weeks in a studio. During this period, we had tried to find sponsorship to fi-nance our expenditure. Istanbul Live Performance Hall, where the concert took place, did not ask for entrance or renting fee and helped us by cut-ting prices of beverages. Although

our friends gave their instruments to Şekerasmus Music Band, we could not find sponsorship for studio rental and for all other expenditures which me-ans, we had do finance our expenditu-res from the donation amount.

Concert day: with the great perfor-mance of Şekerasmus and participants, the fun and joy of the night was far bet-ter than expected. The Şekerasmus`s

music was strolling around the parti-cipants’ blood. The atmosphere was worth seeing. Everyone was enjoying the good music, dancing, bouncing ac-companying to the music.

Decision for donation: after the con-cert, the second step started, donation of the money. We offered two opportu-nities before the concert, a donation to a village primary school and a leukemia institution. Although the votes of do-nation to a village primary school were more than leukemia institution, we de-cided to donate to both of them. Some of the money was appropriated for the leukemia institution and the rest used for the donation for a village primary school. The school was chosen by the Social Erasmus Coordinators of ESN ITU and ESN ESXISTANBUL with the mem-

bers of the group, thinking some of the band mem-bers’ vacations through the east part of Turkey. Con-sidering time and the ap-propriate place, Van-Koçak Primary School, an eastern village primary school was chosen. Donation day: after de-ciding upon a school, all stationery equipment was

bought and sent by cargo. On the 10th June 2011, some of the stationery equipment weas carried and given to the students with some of the band members. It was worth to see the smi-les on the children’s faces, the happi-ness and excitement of meeting foreign people. They tried to talk in English and showed their hospitality with the coo-kies they gave us. During these emotio-nal moments, having some tears in our

eyes put all the work into perspective.As a result of this process: all of the-se great experiences, seeing the rela-tionship between Erasmus and local students while having fun together, sharing their time at the social event, seeing the smiles of children on their little faces, their excitement and hap-piness was priceless and pleasing. We

owe a big thanks to Şekerasmus for their hard work and the spectacular performance, and also all other friends who joined us in this organization in all ways; like the people who donated some money even though could not join the night. After seeing this success, we would love to continue this pro-ject every term with new faces. Hope to see you at the next Social Erasmus Concert…

Performance of Şekerasmushttp://bit.ly/uhi4mzSolo performance of Isabell Hurberthttp://bit.ly/t6HsccCharity part of eventhttp://on.fb.me/vZpB88 Li

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Section in the Spotlight: September ESN ESA Cyprus

By ESN ESA Cyprus

This month’s Section in the Spotlight is located on the sunny island of Cyp-rus. ESN ESA Cyprus has a very unique member structure, as their team is made up by almost entirely current Erasmus students on Cyprus. This me-ans that the section has to re-establish itself almost every semester, making it a real challenge for the team which also consists of the strong duo of the President/NR and Vice-President/Vi-ce-NR who have been developing the section from the very beginning.

The team currently consists of 17 members, 5 of them are board mem-bers and the remaining members are university coordinators, they work as contact persons between the univer-sities, the Erasmus students and the section. Local Cypriot students are

also involved in the section work, as ESN ESA Cyprus has a well established partnership with a local international students club (European Club EUC), and they often co-organize big events together.

ESN ESA Cyprus is an active section, and during the academic year 2010/2011 over 60 activities was arranged for the international students at Cyprus. Monday evenings are dedicated to a weekly radio show about cooking, each broadcast is related to a different country of Europe with an Erasmus student as guest. It is one hour full of typical food, drinks and typical music. The section organizes and overnight trip almost every month, and in the past the Erasmus students on Cyprus have been able to visit Egypt and Jor-

dan as well. There are also lots of local events being organized such as karao-ke challenge, sports days, a paint-ball tournament or a trip to a waterpark. For almost every overnight trip the Super Juyice Committee ensures that there is enough SuperJuyice for all the participants.

Throughout the semester the Presi-dent, with the help of other board members, organizes special workshops with various topics such as ”What is ESN”, ”Teambuilding and leadership” and ”Public Speaking”, to keep their members motivated and help gain knowledge of ESN. Several former ESN ESA Cyprus members have continued working actively with ESN upon retur-ning to their home countries.The section also have people involved in international committees and alt-hough there yet hasn’t been an inter-national event at Cyprus the section is willing to host one, so perhaps there will be one in the future.

Section in the Spotlight

INTHE

Show your Country

EstoniaBy Tiina Nõulik

Estonia, with only about 1,35 million inhabitants, has one of the smallest populations in Europe. Estonians obvi-ously love having a lot of open space around them.Our largest city is Tallinn, the capital, situated on the Northern coast of Es-tonia. Together with Turku in Finland, it is the Culture Capital of Europe 2011. The theme of this year‘s event is „Seasi-de stories“, so the best stories from all over Europe are being told in our lovely medieval-modern capital. Hundreds of different events are going on every day throughout the year, from making ben-ches out of mobile phones and theat-res of hay, to world class jazz concerts and other international events. Moving on to the East, a huge lake Peipsi (Peipus) separates Estonia from Russia, covering almost the whole Eas-tern border. This is also the border of the European Union.Down in the South-East the second lar-gest city of Estonia is situated. With its less than 40 sqkm it is a perfect student town, small enough to use a bicycle almost all year round. Tartu has the honour of having the oldest theatre in Estonia, Vanemuine, and the oldest university, The University of Tartu. It

belongs to the top 600 universities of the world, having educated Estonian, Latvian and other scientists since 1632. Tartu is also called the Athens of the Emajõgi river (Mother River), which di-vides the town into two. There is also the Spirit of Tartu- the special vibe you experience when walking the streets of our lovely university town.Down in the South we have our high-est hill (yes, we don’t have any moun-tains), the Munamägi (Egg Hill) is 318 m above sea level. We make the best with what we have, so during winter time the area around the hill is a very popular skiing centre. When it comes to winters, we have some proper ones here with up to -30 degrees of cold and several metres of snow. But don’t wor-ry, we don’t live in the North Pole, our summers are as hot as the winters are cold, having up to +30 degrees of heat. Estonians are very proud of the 4 stron-gly diverse seasons we have.On the Western coast you can find long sandy beaches and our summer capi-tal Pärnu, where half of Estonia‘s po-pulation tries to fit themselves to the same beach. In the West we also have two of our biggest islands; inhabited by people who are a little different from

those living on the main land (some of them can’t pronounce the letter ‚õ‘ for example, saying ‚ö‘ instead. You can’t see the difference? We definitely can). All in all, Estonia has about 1500 islands, some of them big enough for only birds.

CapitalTallinnLanguageEstonianCurrencyEuro (since 2011)Area45 227 km2

GovernmentParliamentary democracyEU MemberSince May 1st, 2004Something extraSkype was invented by Estonians, it‘s an important part of our so-called E-country (E-elections, E-banking, digital document signing, WiFi access almost everywhere etc).Tallinn has been chosen among the world’s 7 most intelligent communities four times during the last decade by intelligentcommunities.org

Passport

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Show your Country

ESN EstoniaBy Tiina Nõulik & Eero Loonurm

Erasmus Student Network in Estonia saw its first daylight in the year 2000 when the very first ESN section was founded in Tartu on the 21st August. It was founded by the first Estonian Eras-mus students, who had returned from their exchange, in cooperationwith University of Tartu. ESN Tartu was followed by ESN Tallinn in 2003, today it is taking care of exchange students from 9 different universities all over Tallinn. Our capital has 3 more sections (ESN TUT, ESN TLU, ESN EBS), so all in all there’s 5 of us. After almost a year of preparations, on the 7th August 2011 ESN Estonia successfully elected the first National Board. The team consists of President, Vice-president (currently also Vice-

NR), NR, Alumni coordinator and WPA. The words „girl power“ represent ESN Estonia well as most of the network members, just as the NB, consists of girls.Our sections host hundreds of ex-change students every year, organising different trips to neighbouring coun-tries (including SeaBattle to Sweden) as well as to Estonia, very well organised buddy/tutoring systems in cooperation with the universities, visits to different cultural sights/museums, companies and other smaller but not less impor-tant events.For the future we are working to strengthen the cooperation between all our sections. Having 4 national plat-forms a year gives the idea a good start.

ESN Tallinn got the first ESN Alumni Prize for Knowledge Transfer in 2009 for its unique ESN Diary. ESN Tartu started to collect data and give out the Diary from 2011.According to ESN Survey 2010, Esto-nia ranked 1st with the score 4,74 out of 5 regarding the average satisfac-tion level for stay in the hosting coun-try institution. ESN TLU Tallinn has had 40% of growth regarding the incoming ex-change students since last year.ESN Estonia has hosted 4 internati-onal meetings during its 10 years of history. They were NNM (Nordic Net-work Meeting, now NEP) in Tartu and Tallinn in 2002, CNR Tallinn in Sep-tember 2004, NEP Tartu in 2008 and CNR Tartu in June 2011.

Did you know?Li

nk ESN Estoniahttp://www.esn.ee

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Show your Country

International Club is a society set up by the Student’s Council of Tallinn Univer-sity of Technology. It is also a section of Erasmus Student Network (ESN).Its mission is to help foreign students in settling in into the Estonian life-style and make their stay in Estonia as smooth and pleasant as possible.

Every exchange student will be pro-vided with a personal tutor who will help international students with any questions they might have, providing advice and answers to any social or educational problems that internatio-nal students might have.Throughout the semester several

events (cultural and educational) are organised for all the international stu-dents (exchange and degree students) staying at Tallinn University of Techno-logy! Some of more memorable are South-Estonia and Saarema trips.

By Ivo Lillemaa

“Actually it was better than I could have hoped. The university was friend-ly and let me take all the courses I wanted with a flexibility I wish I found in every institution. The tutors helped me at every turn or doubt. In that en-vironment it was easy for the Erasmus students , most of them living in the same building, to create a new home.” (Ester, Erasmus student from Barcelo-na, Spain)

All international students can apply for a tutor, who will help them during first weeks in Tallinn. The tutors will help students with their everyday pro-

blems (resident permit, Identity card, cultural program, lectures, doctor’s appointment etc.) ESN TLU Tallinn has 33 members and activities for all inte-rests: Mushroom picking, trips around Estonia, cultural visits to different sights or companies, Estonian Evening, International Dinner, Pub Crawl.

”On our final day we said goodbye to the country. The snores on the bus on the way home indicated that everyone felt the same way that I did - exhaus-ted. But this was the best kind of ex-haustion - the kind experienced after a night of dancing singing and drinking

(Kama of course). No-one had to ask if we were back in the city- when we woke up and were greeted once again by mist and rain, it was clear that we were, but it didn‘t matter. OK, so it was no Pärnu, but we got all that we nee-ded from the trip: Vitamin D, glowing spirits, and renewed energy to enter back into the rat race of city life.” (Jane, Erasmus student from Dublin, Ireland).

ESN TLU Tallinn is a young section but thanks to the hardworking tutors and active students the growth has been extremely fast.

By Kiviraijuja &LindenburgESN

TLU

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Our section ESN Tallinn is doing eve-rything within our means to make the Erasmus students‘ life in Tallinn as ful-filling as possible. Here in Tallinn we unite students from 9 different partner universities.At the moment we have about 20 active members who are organizing different kind of events in order to in-troduce Estonian culture, habits and traditions to the Erasmus students.

In ESN Tallinn events programme there are many different events planned for the Erasmus students. Every semester begins with the „Orientation Week“ – four great events to meet new people and Tallinn (Movie Night, City Game, Bus Tour and Welcome Party). Every month ESN Tallinn organizes Movie Night and Quiz Tournament and many other events are held regularly throug-hout the semester – we organize trips

and excursions, opera and theatre visits, creativity contest, various out-door and sport events etc.

You can find more information about at www.esn.ee/tallinn or contact us via e-mail esnt@esn.ee.

By Kärt Maalinn

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Show your Country

ESN TartuESN Tartu has about 25 motivated members and around 600 exchange students per year, who take care of the exchange students of 3 universities in Tartu.We have about 2 events per week, the most popular ones are the Wel-come Week (that include Welcome Day organized by Tartu University, Pub Crawl, Welcome Party), Buddy Network (where the international stu-dents get an Estonian buddy to learn the language and teach their own, but it‘s also to bring the international students closer to locals) and the Na-tional Evenings every month, where the chosen country‘s students get to introduce their culture to fellow inter-nationals and Estonians through their food, folklore, customs etc. We also try to do some charity work – a few times a semester we visit the local dog shel-ter, in addition, we collect all the items leaving students don‘t want to take with them and distribute them to next years‘ students and/or the homeless shelters in Tartu.In 2008, we organized the NEP Tartu and just two months ago in June; CNR Tartu 2011 was held in our beloved student town. Also 2 of the previous International Board Vice-presidents

are from ESN Tartu.“My experience studying abroad would be entirely different without ESN-Tartu. I met an incredible amount of incredible people through ESN events, and felt connected to the local community; having a bridge to local culture like the one ESN-Tartu provides is one of the reasons I now consider Estonia my home, not to mention the meaningful friendships I gained.”-Camille Morse Nicholson, Erasmus in Tartu, 2011More information on ESN Tartu can be found on www.esn.ee/tartu and of course on www.facebook.com/esn.tartu .

By Mariann Mölder

EBS International ClubEBS International Club includes about 20 local students, let’s name them „tu-tors“, who each have 2-4 Erasmus stu-dents to take care of. They pick their students up from the airport, help to move in and solve problems, and of course spend free time together. Tu-tors are the Estonian buddies for Eras-mus students so the exchange students wouldn’t feel alone and helpless in

here when they arrive. EBS International Club also arranges many events like Orientation Day, Ci-tytour, Pubcrawl, social evenings, In-ternational Dinner, trips to other cities in Estonia, vistis to interesting institu-tions, museums, companies, and of course - numerous parties. Our Eras-mus students used to say „I don’t have to worry, my tutor does it for me“.

Few words from our previous Erasmus students:„This Erasmus year in Tallinn among the ESN and the EBS international club was incredible! So many people met, so many experiences, I hope I am gonna live such a year again, it really gave me the will to go and to live abroad in order to discover new people and new cultures!„Cyriaque from France

„EBS international club organized a many of interesting events who were practically all the time, so I wasn‘t bo-red. I had a possibility to get to know the other international students in many of excursions (full of adventures) and to have fun together in EBS parties. I think EBS club works really good. Now I can have great memories from Tallinn and it was the most amazing period of my life.“ Sylwia from Poland

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m o t i v a t e - a c t i v a t e - i n n o v a t e

Projects & Partners

Eduk8, Eduk8, every day we Eduk8By Dorottya Glatz

Budapest, Hungary. These two words make many ESN member recall AGM 2011. But for 10 highly motivated ES-Ners these two words mean the place where they have had the time of their ESN lives.

Despite the unbearable heat of the week between the 21st and the 27th of August the participants still worked hard to gain all possible knowledge to become trainers. The first day started with some difficulties... well yes the opening party happened to be very good...but as you all know every cloud has a silver lining: everybody learned a little italian - ‘Il tempo é molto impor-tante’ - time is very important! Right af-ter a short introduction about conflict management and the importance of being on time the training could start with group building and facing fears and expectations. Later on, identities, motivation and group dynamics were the focus. Participants had to work in pairs and prepare presentations about the Tuckman’s stages through answe-ring questions like ‘What are the func-tions of the leader at different stages?’ and ‘How the leader can provide more supportive atmosphere?’.

On the second day, participants sought even more motivation and expanded their knowledge about group dyna-mics; they also learned methods for debriefing and feedback which are essential parts of workshops. On Wed-nesday, participants had to prepare their own workshops in groups for the next day. But before starting to work it out the toughest part still had to be learnt: active listening. Don’t think that staying quiet and saying the right thing at the right time is as easy as it sounds...

After the 4th day of an Indian summer, around 7 o’clock the temperature was reasonable for attacking Budapest and doing some sightseeing. Imagine 10 leaders in one group trying to agree on going in the same direction...yes, chaotic! But after some beers on top of the Buda hills the conflicts become sol-ved themselves and participants could immerse themselves in the Hungarian culture.

The next morning the training for trai-ners continued where the groups put their newly gained knowledge into practice and held their own very first workshops. Each workshop had to be 1

hour long including energizers and feedback. In the end, our lovely trainer Liza evaluated the work of the groups and the individual performance as well. This was the most active and one of the most useful days of all as every participant could experience how hard is to make people respect the trainer or even make them listen, especially if the trainer is younger than the par-ticipants. After the Eduk8 training the participants were rewarded for their work and taken to a relaxing traditional Hungarian spa; here it was finally time to relax and let all the stress flow away like a stream in the woods. On the very last working day our new ESN trainers decided on how to work together after Eduk8 and an action plan for future col-laboration was developed.

The whole week was exhausting. This time even the ‘work hard - party har-der’ spirit turned to ‘party hard - work harder’ but in the end it was very much worth the effort. Since August our fresh trainers have already held their first workshops on national platforms, section meetings and soon regional

platforms as well.

m o t i v a t e - a c t i v a t e - i n n o v a t e

Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Sweden, Denmark, Germany.

Does your country have a trainer?

12

Events & Experiences

Fellowship Of Cultures Project by ESN Akdeniz! They know how to improve their Eg-lish: Sharing the friendship with re-markable synergy.

In July, students from all around Tur-key gathered in Adrasan Training and Application Centre of Akdeniz Univer-sity, Antalya. A few months ago, vo-lunteers of ESN Akdeniz applied for a Youth In Action Project to the Turkish National Agency, aiming to build re-markable communication and sharing between the participants, by the time they spent socially, getting to know each other and improving their English through workshops and sessions, that each of them are responsible for.

25 students from various cities of the country came together, took part in daily activities, organized artistic work-shops like origami or the sharing of daily tips such as how to prepare your luggage most efficiently. Thousands of tourists from various countries fly to Antalya during summer to have a vaca-tion. Participants of the Fellowship Of Cultures Project have done interviews with tourists, took a video as well and additionally made a sketch of the peo-ple who they had interview with.

Kadir Keleş, the National Representati-ve and Emre Çevik, the Vice President of ESN Turkey were present during the implementation of a project as special

guests and were

participants as same as the rest of the group. They informed the students about the whole structure of ESN and what could be the benefits of being an ESNer in future. Most of the

participants whose ESN sections already exist in their uni-versities applied to become a volun-teer and currently a group of students took first steps to establish a new sec-tion in Kocaeli University.

Volunteers of ESN Akdeniz were cer-tainly satisfied with the results of the Project, as this is one of the hundreds of Youth in Action projects they have

organized and thus believe

that it will be a great beginning for the members of the section to think even more extensive next time, apply for another Project in future which will consist of ESNers and students all around Europe, who knows?

After all, it is really not easy to exp-lain the atmosphere and synergy that did arise after such week in Adrasan. Countless projects have been granted by EU, it was not the first event they participated in for most of the partici-pants. But still, they all did agree about one thing in the end: they didn’t only improve their language and met with nice people, they learned you can ex-periment so many things with people who you have never met before in such a short period and it definitely feels

good to be fascinated!

13

Translation

Algarve, o oásis de PortugalNas margens ocidentais da Europa existe um país cheio de história e gen-te calorosa. Um país de contrastes que faz da diversidade uma das suas maio-res riquezas, onde a natureza perman-ece intocada e as praias são banhadas pelo atlântico e pelo sol. Um país de artistas que deixaram a sua marca, cuja obra é conhecida por todo o mundo e onde se pode saborear alguns dos mel-hores vinhos do globo.

No sul de Portugal há um sítio que en-canta todos os que por lá passam. O sol brilha e aquece as praias, mesmo quando no resto da Europa está frio. Já ouviste falar deste sítio! De certe-za que algum amigo já te disse coisas como “Eu fui da praia à montanha num segundo” ou “Estive em Sunset Parties, seguidas de grandes noites nas mel-hores discotecas e no dia seguinte al-mocei marisco fresco mesmo em cima da praia!”. É também provável que já tenhas lido sobre ele, que tenhas en-contrado numa revista de viagens um artigo a dizer que umas das mais belas praias do mundo estão aqui e que até

as estrelas do cinema já sabem disso. O mais provável ainda é teres visto um programa na TV sobre a cultura e a história daquele que foi eleito o mel-hor destino de golf do mundo. Mas também podes ter encontrado sites na Internet onde se diz que o verão aqui dura o ano inteiro e que se podem pra-ticar quase todos os desportos, dentro e fora de agua. Ou então já lá estiveste e fizeste tudo isto! É natural que con-

heças o Algarve pelos olhos, pela mão e pela voz de muita gente. Mas se te falta conhecer os segredos, as casca-tas escondidas, as praias desertas e selvagens, a beleza do cabo de Sagres (o ponto mais ocidental da Europa) e toda a diversão que este sítio tem para oferecer, desafiamos-te a visitá-lo!

Se gostas de praia, diversão à séria e paisagens de tirar o fôlego, deves pas-sar pelo Algarve quando visitares Por-tugal. É um dos destinos mais procura-dos pelos turistas neste país e mesmo os portugueses não lhe resistem quan-do chega a altura das suas férias.

A ESN Portugal organiza, todos os anos, na altura em que o bom tempo começa a aparecer, o Erasmus National Meeting (ENM) no Algarve. Este é, sem dúvida, um dos eventos mais aguarda-dos do ano! Imagina 4 dias com 500 Erasmus no Algarve, num evento orga-nizado com apenas um objectivo: viver os melhores 4 dias de Erasmus!

Este ano o ENM teve lugar num resort de 4 estrelas, perto da praia de Albufei-ra. A Sunset Party, a Coyote Ugly Party

com happy hour durante toda a noite (só para Erasmus) e a Festa da Espuma na KADOC, uma das melhores discote-cas de Portugal, animaram as noites deste encontro. De dia realizaram-se actividades na praia e na piscina, kara-oke e um dia no maior parque aquático português, o Slide&Splash.

Estes dias passam à velocidade da luz, mas as memórias ficam para a eterni-dade.

Algarve, tens de o viver para o com-preender!

14

Translation

Algarve, The Portuguese OasisOn the western shores of Europe the-re is a country full of history and warm people. A country that takes advan-tage of its contrasts, where the nature remains untouched and the beaches are bathed by the Atlantic ocean and kissed by the sun. A country where plenty artists left their own marks, known worldwide, and where you can taste one of the best wines in the glo-be.

In the south of Portugal there is a place that charms everyone, where the sun-shine warms the beaches, even when it’s cold in Europe. You’ve already heard about this place! We are sure that some friend of yours has told you stuff like “I walked from the beach to the mountains in seconds!” or “I went to amazing Sunset Parties, followed by great nights at the best discos and in the following day I’ve eaten seafood on the beach!”. It’s also probable that

you’ve read about it, that you found in a travel magazine an article saying that one of the most beautiful beaches in the world are located here, and even the movie stars already know that. Pro-bably you watched a TV programme announcing that this place was elected the best golf destiny in the world. But you may also have found websites on the internet where people say that the-re the summer goes on during all year and you can practice almost every wa-ter and land sports. Or maybe you have been there and have done all of this!

It’s natural that you know Algarve by the eyes, hands and voices of many people. But if you don’t know the sec-rets, the hidden waterfalls, those sava-ge beaches, the beauty of Sagres’ Cape (the Europe’s most western point) and all the fun that this place has to offer you, we challenge you to visit it!

If you like the beach, to party hard and breathtaking landscapes you must go to Algarve. This destiny is one of the most selected by tourists, when it comes to this country, and even Por-tuguese people don’t resist to spend some days there, when it’s vacancy time.

ESN Portugal organizes, every year, in the Spring break time, the Erasmus Na-tional Meeting (ENM) at Algarve. This is, no doubt, one of the most expected events in the year! Imagine 4 days with

500 Erasmus at Algarve, on an event that has just one goal: to spend the best 4 days of the Erasmus experience!

This year ENM took place at a 4 star resort, near the Albufeira beach. Eve-rybody enjoyed the Sunset Party, the Coyote Ugly Party with happy hour all night long (for Erasmus only) and a Foam Party at KADOC, one of the best discos in Portugal. During the day there was plenty activities by the pool and the beach, such as karaoke and several sports, and one day was spent at the biggest Portuguese water park Slide&Splash.

These days go by at the speed of light, but memories remain for the eternity.

Algarve, you must live it to understand t!

15

Meet the Board

October International Board Diaryby Leo Smith

October is notoriously one of the crazy months in ESN (which ones aren’t we hear you ask?) with many events hap-pening at the local, national and in-ternational level and also the board engaged in the coordination of net-work, communication with external partners and running of our projects like PRIME, SocialErasmus etc. Thus, we have lots to let you know about in this feature…

The month began with the return from CNR Nancy, a productive meeting that saw the approval of ESN Georgia and second sections in ESN Ireland ESN Croatia, demonstrating the growth and popularity of our network. Also, many interesting sessions were conducted whereby NRs had the opportunity to share ideas about what the network can do for the 25th Anniversary of Erasmus.

A policy of the International Board this year is to stay close to sections and we felt that the best way to do that is to come and meet you face-to-face at your national platforms. Therefore, Damien was attending the Slovakian NP at the start of the month to speak with ESNers, get their feedback and talk to them about the activities of ESN International. At the same time, Leo returned home to the UK to participate in the UK National Platform, an event which saw the growth of ESN UK to 13 sections, the election of a new NB and really promising ideas for how the UK can get more engaged in ESN activities. We will be trying to coming to more platforms throughout the year, so just let us know if you would like one of the IB to visit your NP as well.

Also, at the same weekend as the UK NP, Josefin and Fabian were represen-ting ESN at the IFISO meeting (Informal Forum of International Student Orga-nisations) in Thessaloniki sharing best practices, attending workshops and small sessions that facilitate cooperate between ESN and the youth associa-tions. ESN was also elected as the next house for the Spring event, so if your section would like to organise this pres-tigious event, you can apply on www.esn.org.

Next up was the Right for your Rights Conference which took place in Octo-ber in both Luxembourg and Brussels and it was the final event to celebrate the success of the project and coope-ration between Campus Europae and ESN. The event was attended by Katja and Tania from the Board and many other ESNers from all across Europe, and they all participated in the con-ference, trainings and workshops and even had the chance to visit the Euro-pean Parliament in Brussels.

One of ESN’s most renowned pro-jects, ExchangeAbility had its final event to celebrate the culmination of the project cooperation between ESN and UNICA. The event was held in Brussels and attended by a number of students with disabilities engaged in the campaign, National Agencies, the board and other important sta-keholders. This fantastic and uplif-ting event saw the presentation of all the videos produced through the project and celebrated the impact of everybody’s work. Following on from this, Tania attended a National Agen-cies meeting which was a fantastic opportunity to talk about the imple-mentation of the Erasmus program-me, the work of ESN in each country and also how the two bodies can co-

operate for the 25th Anniversary of the Erasmus Programme in 2012.

As some of you may know, ESN is sup-ported by grants which allow us to work here in Brussels and also to run our major projects such as PRIME and SocialErasmus. Therefore, we are al-ways trying to learn more about what we can apply for and how we can make better applications in the future. So on 28th November, Virginie, our new sec-retary (she started to work with us in September) attended a Grant writing and Info day to gather lots of informa-tion and gain trainings that will for sure be valuable to our work in the future. Simultaneously, the Regional Platforms began with SWEP Lisbon being the first event for ESNers in the region to attend. Josefin and Leo attended the event with 45 motivated participants coming from Spain, Portugal, France and Italy to attend workshops and trai-nings and share best practices and in-formation about their work.

And to round of a busy, yet productive October for the board we had a Hallo-ween Party in the ESN House, with a number of ESNers present to join us for this ghoulish fancy dress event….

16

Section in the Spotlight

Section in the Spotlight: July AEP-ESN Padova

By AEP -ESN Padova

PadovaWinner of the Starlight Award 2011 and Section in the Spotlight in July, AEP-ESN Padova is one of the most active sections in the network. It was found-ed in 1992 and became part of the network in 1994, it has more than 40 active members, about 800 ESN cards every year, 2 twin sections (Maribor and Nancy) and 70 activities each semester. We can offer our Erasmus a lot of cultural events (such as theatre or photography courses), sport events (rafting, ice skating, etc.) educational events (trips to museums and cities), of course a lot of fun, besides involving them in our everyday life, out of ESN. Plus, we are very active also on the international level, and some examples are our 4 members in the IB in the last 5 years, the organization of the SWEP 2010, the participation in the major ESN meetings (CoMeet, CNR, Section Meetings) the participation in many inter-national projects (Survey, PRIME, EVS, etc..) and the organization of the PRIME Conference 2011.

However, our main commitment is on a local and national level: our greatest activities are the Boat Party, which means 15 hours through the lagoon of Venice with 250 Erasmus students, a 3-day trip to Slovenia and the Carnival, this year with more than 1800 parti-cipants and 28 sections from all over Italy, a guided tour through Padua and a huge masked party. We take part in the ESNow and the Evento Nazionale so that our Erasmus can meet those who are having the same experience all over the country. One of our new projects is the ESN Ba-zar: the guys who are going back home

can leave us what they don’t need, so that we can give it to the new coming students.Also this year, together with the Uni-versity, we are organizing the Wel-come Day and the Welcome Back Day, two days during which we welcome the incoming students or those who come back from their Erasmus.The University also gave us an office, which we open 4 days a week and where we welcome the incoming Eras-mus or the Italian students about to leave who need information about their new cities. Finally, we do care about the cohesion inside our group and that is why we organize a dinner twice a year only for ESNers so that we can spend more time together.

Section in the Spotlight: August ESN Lisbon

By ESN Lisbon

ESN Lisbon was born on a sunny day, in the year 2008 - And it seems like a mil-lion years ago! We are extremely proud to be a very active section in ESN, with activities every single weekend, par-ties, cultural events, and active mem-bers who are willing to go all the way to make each exchange student know what it feels like to have an Erasmus ex-perience in this wonderful city! Our team has been growing at what looks like one unstoppable rate - not only in numbers, but in commitment and quality, we are around 30 active members, highly motivated to make this the greatest Erasmus students or-ganization ever. And apparently, we are getting there even quicker than

we thought - Over the past year, we had more than 2500 Erasmus signed up to our section. To improve and al-ways maintain the ESN spirit among the members, we organize Teambuilding weekends and dinners, in addition to our weekly meetings..Beside the usual trips to Portugal’s most well known and cherished places (Algarve, Fátima, Porto, Sintra, Mafra, Arrábida, and Tomar), there were also some great group activities, where the spirit of ESN was always present, like in our BBQs, Movie Sessions, Eurodinner - among so many others! Our trip to Torres Vedras allowed the Erasmus stu-dents to experience the most Portugue-se carnival of Portugal. We should also

mention the great Radical Weekend in Coimbra, where the Erasmus were given the opportunity to participate in activities like slide, rappel, climbing, and canoeing. Through Wine Tasting and Cooking Sessions we took some time to value our own flavors and gas-tronomy as well - Or do you still think that Portugal is just about the codfish and the port wine?

Along with other ESN Portugal sections, we also took part in the ESN National Football Tournament in Aveiro, and, as it couldn’t be missed, the highlight of this year - the Erasmus National Mee-ting. This great event took place in the Algarve and we reached an ama-zing number of almost 200 Erasmus students signing up, joining 600 from other Portugal sections.

INTHE

17

Section in the Spotlight

What about the parties? ESN knows how to throw a great party – no doubt about that! Every single Tuesday is al-ready known as the “musicbox night”. This get-together always follows the traditional meeting at the “Erasmus Corner” - a street in the heart of our very own Bairro Alto - one of the coo-lest places to hang out at night and where all the Erasmus meet for a beer. We are also proud to say that we have had parties in the best clubs of Lisbon (Gossip, Kapital, Loft), a Beach Party, and that they were always memorable!

One of the projects that helped the new Erasmus integration was the Bud-dy Programme. This project, which this year has brought together over 300 Erasmus students and Portuguese enthusiastic participants, consists in attributing a Portuguese student to tu-tor the Erasmus and help them to get involved with our lifestyle and culture. For the next semester, ESN Lisbon is al-ready planning new initiatives concer-ning this integration, like the Tandem Language Project and Social Erasmus.

Regarding the best interests of the Erasmus students, ESN Lisbon has an office, open every week day and also

has some partnerships such as with lo-cal banks, hostels, a language school, a surf school, phone networks and many others - all of which to guarantee the best services and the most comfortable life possible during each Erasmus stay in Lisbon. We have good contact with the universities around Lisbon, parti-cipating in Welcome Days and making ourselves known throughout the Uni-versity Campuses. We also wrote the ESN Guide and will continue to improve it throughout the following semesters.

ESN Lisbon is also working on establi-shing a long lasting relationship with ESN International and with other sec-tions all over Europe, and as such, we

have members in the national board, and one of our members is the national PRIME coordinator. Also, not only will we be organizing the Cultural Medley for the second consecutive year, but we are also hosting the SWEP next Oc-tober. At the Cultural Medley this July, ESN Lisbon is planning trips around the city, surf lessons, wine tasting and of course, big parties, where the ESN spi-rit we all love, and stand for, will surely be present.

ESN Lisbon has had a very busy year - and we intend to keep up the good work and developing our section - Al-ways with the Pallomeri spirit within all of us, that could never be missed!S

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Youth Convention

The rights of the Volunteer - II Youth convention on Volunteering

by Josefin Svensson

With a main topic of the rights of the volunteer, during four days at the heart of Europe, gathering thousands of young people, among them 80 ES-Ners showing the power of volunteers the Second Youth Convention on Vo-lunteering took place.

The event, organised by the European Youth Forum took place at the Euro-pean Parliament Esplanade and Place Luxembourg in Brussels and gathered thousands of young people, politici-ans and other stakeholders from all over the world in a four-day event to empower the volunteer. The first two days were dedicated to a conference on the rights of the volunteer, brin-ging together 70 stakeholders from all over Europe to discuss this im-portant matter. Raising the voice of volunteers, this conference resulted in a declaration which was officially handed over to representatives of the parliament.

The following two days hosted an EU-China conference focusing on the vo-lunteers values and work in the two parts, finding similarities and differen-

ces. The participants literally built a bridge in order to symbolize the bridge that should be built between Europe and China.

Parallel to this was the biggest part of the event, the v-village, a fair containing the stands of youth organi-sations and important stakeholders - each of which were showing themsel-ves to the public, engaging visitors in competitions and other activities. ESN had its own stand, displaying its work, publications and with all the flags and

ESN gadgets it was hard to miss the delegation of almost 100 ESNers.

The v-village festivities were open to the general public and offered an open space to be filled by the imagination of the organisations and stakeholders present. During its two days thousands of people visited the event – taking part in art projects, debates and work-

shops. ESN was there to hold 7 workshops of which many were much appreciated. Moreover, an event like this is a great place to show the concerns, causes and work of a youth orga-nization like ESN, but is also a great deal when it comes to op-portunities offered to its members.

19

Show your Country

Do you know Polska?By Iga Nowak

WHERE? Poland lies in the central part of the European continent, the geome-trical centre of which is near Warsaw. This is where the lines from Nordkyn in Norway to Matapan in Greece, and from Cabo da Roca in Portugal to the central Urals intersect. The boundary between the East and West European continental masses also runs through Poland.

Poland‘s total surface area is 322,500 sq km (312,600 sq km of land, 1,200 sq km of inland waters, and 8,700 sq km of territorial waters). This makes it the ninth largest country in Europe, after Russia, Ukraine, France, Spain, Swe-den, Germany, Finland and Norway, and the 63rd largest in the world. HOW MANY PEOPLE? In 2003 Poland‘s population stood at 38,111,000. This figure makes it the 29th most popula-ted country in the world and the 8th in Europe. Before, it ranked seventh,

but was surpassed by the independent Ukraine. It is forecast to regain the se-venth place position roughly by 2030, surpassing Spain.

WHAT IS THE BEST CUSINE? The Po-lish national dish is bigos, made of bri-ned cabbage with a variety of meats, smoked meats and mushrooms. Ano-ther speciality worth trying is gołąbki - cabbage leaves stuffed with minced meat and rice or groats, served with tomato or mushroom sauce.Typical dishes include:barszcz bee-troot soup with mushrooms or uszka (dumplings stuffed with mushrooms), mushroom soup, a cabbage dish (usu-ally plain cabbage with mushrooms or pierogi with cabbage and mushrooms), sweet dumplings with poppy seeds, pastries, cakes, fruit, nuts, sweets and a compote drink made from stewed prunes, dried pears and apples. The main treat, though, is fish.

WHAT IS WORTH SEEING? Krakow, Warsaw, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Lublin are some of the most beautiful ci-ties in Poland. Beautiful buildings, inte-resting architecture and scenic places, it is their common trait. Moreover, while in Poland it is worth a trip to the moun-tains or the sea. Tourists have to see Mazury - land lakes and visit one of the many scenic parks.This is Poland!

More: www.poland.gov.pl. *Visit: www.doyouknowpolska.com

CapitalWarsawLanguagePolishPopulation38.2 MillionCurrencyPolish Zloty PLN (1 Euro = 4,14 PLN)Area312,685 km2

EU MemberSince 2004

Passport

20

Show your Country

ESN Poland!by Iga Nowak & Julia Trawrinska

The history of ESN in Poland began in 1998 when the first section was found-ed at the Medical Academy in Warsaw. At the same time, students from other cities, independently, saw the need to create organizations that would susta-in student exchanges among the Poles, and has provided Erasmus with integ-ration and support. The following uni-versities gathered in informal groups, whose aim was to create a framework for cooperation between the visiting students at Polish universities. In paral-lel with the activities in sections, Artur Orlowski (ESN SGH section president) and Michael Rule (section president of ESN Gdańsk) independently began to develop assumptions about the start of cooperation between the national level sections. The idea of the first nati-onwide meeting of ESN sections led to the organization of a National Platform, which was held in Gdansk, Poland (09.05.2003 - 11.05.2003). Here we began discussing the proposal for the establishment of ESN SGH Association in ESN Poland, but after an exchange of views between representatives of the section about the decision on the initi-ation of work on the establishment of the association was postponed. From year to year, the ESN Poland Associati-on is growing. We are constantly incre-asing the number of projects, as well as members of ESN. At present, ESN Poland has 33 sections in all major aca-demic centers in Poland.In April 2011 at the National Platform

in Poznan, the Polish delegates elected a national board of six people. With the change of the national statutes, they established a new position in the board: Project Manager. In May the po-sition came into effect. The official end

of term of the outgoing Board and han-dover was held on 1st July 2011. The meeting took place on the Baltic Sea in the beautiful tourist town, which is Sopot.

Several days of meetings were held for the members of two boards and they were very beneficial and valuable! ‘Ol-der’ friends gave newcomers success-ful rules for cooperation, solving the problems encountered and a whole lot of experiences that they managed to collect during the annual term. For members of the new board, it was an opportunity to create an action plan for the coming term, the division of taks and rules of operation in a group and designate the points to be imple-mented.

The substantive discussions that lasted very long. A few days spent together have passed under the motto ‘ESN’. Even the dinner took place in the hub-bub of talk about SocialErasmus, Disco-ver Europe or the National Platform.But the evening belonged to us! Tired, but satisfied with the agenda going out

on night walks on the beach. Courage-ous of us, in accordance with the prin-ciple of ‘being at the seaside is a duty to bathe in it’, jumped into the cold Bal-tic Sea. Others who deny this principle, they were thrown into the sea ...

It was a nice meeting that will certainly leave a lasting memory of the outgoing board members. This short, but very efficient trip will have a very positive impact on year-long collaboration of new board members of the Association of ESN Poland. We are very grateful to Anne (now HR) for the ‘clasp us’ to her room. The view of 12 people sleeping in one small room (and one person in the car before the block;)) will long re-main in our memory!

Thanks to the outgoing Board: Mag-dalena Stanisławska, Piotr Cylke, Piotr Sosnowski, Joanna Gierasimiuk, Piotr Grudniewski, Krzysztof Węgrzynowicz (continues the function). Thank you for all your support and we hope to see you soon.

And of course let’s wish the good luck for the new Board: Artur Koziński, Julia Trawińska, Anna Seweryn, Michał Pi-órkowski, Anna Murawska and me, Iga Nowak.

Pallomeri

21

Show your Country

„BLACK SILESIA” IS FULL OF POSSIBILITIES!

By Ola Kubiczek

Between 19th and 22nd of May 2011 ESN UE Katowice organized the fourth edition of “Silesia Days”.“Silesia Days” is a cultural didactic conference organized for all exchange students in Poland. The goal of this meeting is to show the possibilities of students’ development in the Silesia Region to all foreign people and to pro-ve that Silesia is a good place to live.

Our event generally consists of three parts:

1) Conference day- this is a good occa-sion to learn more about working and developing a career in the Upper Sile-

sia region. Participants are also able to learn more about the history, current cultural events and technological news of the Silesian Voivodeship.2) Extreme economics - a field game based on teamwork. The game takes place in the Silesian Central Park in Chorzów. It is full of attractions such as zorbing, roller coaster, wall climbing or windsurfing. 3) Trips to the most interesting tourist attractions in the region like the Bre-wery in Tychy (Browary Tyskie) or the coal mine “Guido” in Zabrze.

The first day began in the afternoon. New friends from other universities were accommodated in our dormitory

and after that went to dinner, during which they had the opportunity to tas-te Pierogi - a famous Polish dish.In the evening we had a special wel-come party in the student club “Kwa-draty”. The party was exceptional, be-cause it was a Foam Party!

After a hard reveille on the second day, we went together to the University of Economics in Katowice to take part in the Conference. During this interesting meeting we learnt a lot about the pre-sent events in the Silesian Voivodship and watched two presentations which were made by our older Erasmus friends and related to their experien-

ces in Poland. They told us how they had developed their career in the Up-per Silesia and what had helped them in coming to the decision about staying in our country.After dinner (a delicious pizza) all par-ticipants went to Tychy to visit the Brewery. They learnt about its history, about the production of the beer and in the end they took part in the beer tasting. In the evening we had a Bus Party. The whole Erasmus team from our Univer-sity, our guests and the local ESN mem-bers had fun inside the bus which was traveling around Katowice.Saturday was a very active day. It was 30°C when the Extreme Economics

started. We divided our group into teams. For each team was given a map, with the help of which the team mem-bers were to reach every point on it. In every place there was a special challen-ge for the group. The points were re-ceived for completing them. The win-ners - a team with the highest number of points and the best time - got the prize. Everybody had a lot of fun and, what is important, we had been lucky enough to return before a great storm started. Luckily, the weather was much better, so we could go to the concert of Myslovitz. A bungee jumping turned out to be an extra attraction for the Erasmus people.

The last day we spent visiting the mu-seum - the coal mine “GUIDO” in Zab-rze. The ESN members did their best to translate the difficult miner’s language to English. We gained knowledge about

the hard work in a mine and about the history of the coal mining in the Sile-sian region. After the tour we went to eat a special Silesian dinner: a beef roulade with the Silesian dumplings and red cabbage.

Silesia Days 2011 has come to the suc-cessful conclusion! This year’s four-day event attracted 60 participants from Universities all over Poland. We had a lot of fun and after these days we are proud to say that: „BLACK SILESIA” is FULL OF POSSIBILITIES!!!

See you next year! Get wild in Silesia!

22

Show your Country

THE DELEGATES’ MEETINGBy Katarzyna Pachlita

On 27th-29th May the Delegates’ Mee-ting was held in Cracow. It is one of the most important meetings at the natio-nal level between the Erasmus Student Network representatives. The delega-tes of all Polish ESN sections took part in the congress to deliberate, decide and plan how to work. One delegate from each section and a few guests

determined by the ESN Poland board were invited for the Delegates’ Mee-ting. The meeting takes place three times a year and is the international contact network.80 persons, representing various uni-versities took part in the meeting which was held in May: AGH Universi-ty of Science and Technology, Kozmin-ski University, National Defence Uni-versity in Warsaw, Collegium Civitas, Medical University of Gdansk, Bialys-tok University of Technology, Gdansk University of Technology, Cracow University of Technology, Lublin Uni-versity of Technology, Lodz Universi-ty of Technology, Poznan University of Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, Wroclaw University of Technology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Lazarski University, Katowice University of Economics, Cracow Uni-versity of Economics, Poznan Univer-sity of Economics, Wroclaw University of Economics, University of Gdansk, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poz-nan, Jagiellonian University, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Mikolaj Kopernik University in Torun, University of Szczecin, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Uni-versity of Warsaw, Medical University of Warsaw and Silesian University of Technology.

The Delegates’ Meeting was prepared by the two Cracovian universities, na-mely Cracow University of Economics and the Jagiellonian University. Those responsible for organizing the meeting were Ewelina Kus – president of ESN UJ, Adrian Łuczyński – president of ESN UEK and Marcin Kopeć – ESN Poland Association Fundraising Coordinator.

On May 28th, the deliberations were held at the University of Economics and were related to the reports on the current Board’s activity, the finan-cial statements with emphasis on the outstanding section payments, the re-ports of the Audit Committee and the personal reports. Then the Erasmania case was discussed and afterwards the small sessions were conducted relating to the new association statu-te, the recruitment and the Discover Europe project evaluation. In the final stage of deliberations the vo-

ting for the amendment of the statute and regulations took place as well as the election to the ESN Poland Board, which includes:Artur Koziński – PresidentJulia Trawińska – National Representa-tiveKrzysztof Węgrzynowicz –TreasurerMichał Piórkowski – Project Manager Iga Nowak – Communication ManagerAnna Seweryn - Board Member of Hu-man Resources Anna Murawska - Board Member of Organization

On May 29th, the deliberations were held at the Jagiellonian University. The presentation topics consisted of the is-sues such as: the vision of co-operation development with Association Part-ners, the potential of the ESN Poland brand, a discussion on “What can be done thanks to the work in the ESN?” and a discussion on the ESN Olympics and Cracow ESNalia projects. The re-ports from the trainings and the Schu-man Parade were also submitted.At the May Delegates’ Meeting impor-tant decisions were taken connected not only with the ESN Poland, but also with the various local sections, which have a significant impact on their con-tinued functioning and activity. We do hope that the approved changes and adopted provisions will contribute to more effective work and even better using of the potential that ESN and people creating it have.

23

Show your Country

We‘ve painted the Monument!The Ecological-Scientific Picnic took place on the 11th June at Warsaw‘s Children‘s Health Center, under the patronage of the Mayor of Warsaw‘s Wawer district. During this picnic, the patients and other guests participated in various physics and chemistry experiments, in-cluding experiencing how a hybrid engine or a magnetic rail works. There were also other workshops on the creation of handmade pa-per, as well as activities with a microscope and rifles. Poland‘s ESN Organisati-on was very visible at the picnic. It integrated with both Polish and foreign students, bringing smiles

onto curious children‘s faces. Youngs-ters participated in activities such as having national flags or fake tattoos painted on their faces. There was also the possibility of making handmade je-welry or playing musical instruments. It

was quite challenging for young people to try their best in communicating in foreign languages to the foreign students present. All this pleasantly took place in an international atmosphere.The concert of the band – Enej, as well as the pre-sence of graffiti artists were the main attrac-tions of the picnic. Two days prior to the picnic, a big gray monument was placed on the site of the picnic. By the end of the picnic the statue was no longer a frightening gray

statue, but a beautifully co-

loured sculpture which attracted po-sitive attention. This project was pre-pared by Alicja Getka from Warsaw‘s Academy of Fine Arts and was realized by the students from Erasmus Student Network. It was a real treat for them to paint a gray dirty monument, success-fully doing so and rewardingly saying “We‘ve painted the monument”. This selfless action was done so that the children fighting for their health could feel that through this colourful monu-ment they were not alone in their ef-forts. The purpose of this project was to make gray reality into something more colourful.All of the activities mentioned above are just a small part of the SocialErasmus project in Poland. The human element as well as the smile of the children‘s faces were what counted for us !

By Karol Ślusarski

European Day & the Shuman ParadeThis year’s May was full of such great events like the ESN Olympics, The Final Gala of Discover Europe, The European Day (SGH) and of course the Schuman Parade! Let’s refresh our memory about the Schuman Parade and The European Day.The parade was a huge success. There were many of us, every section from Warsaw delegated a small group consis-ting of members and Erasmus students to represent them. The parade started at noon from the place in front of the Castle in the Old Town and was moving towards ‘Nowy Świat’ to the so called ‘European Town’ where we had our stand to promote ESN and make child-ren smile. Our big flag was seen every-where by everyone, even on TV! Later in the European Town we were painting kids’ faces, blowing up balloons and

enjoyed our time to-gether ;)Another event coor-dinated by ESN SGH was The European Day. We were ce-lebrating the unity of Europe and pro-moting the Erasmus programme. It took place in the main building of Warsaw School of Economics. We gathered a huge crowd there! People were shocked and amazed by our dance show perfor-med by Joanna Dąbrowska and Volody-myr Sharapov. The big surprise was our handmade wall presenting the word ‘Europe’ made out of 100 boxes! During the event we organized a conference on how we can obtain subsidies from the EU. From the very beginning we were

supported by traditional music from Eu-ropean countries. In other words: ano-ther great event prepared by the ESN!So, as these events belong to the past, we look forward to the future! We hope next polish events will be another suc-cess in promoting our beloved ESN!

By Hubert Wodzyński

24

Show your Country

Alphabet: Do you know Polska?

Here is the Alphabet about this won-derful, central European country brin-ging you a lot of entertainment and knowledge! Let’s check to see how much you know about Poland!

A like AstronomerMikołaj Kopernik (Nicolaus Coper-nicus) born in Toruń. Developed the heliocentric model of the solar sys-tem, according to which the Sun is at the center. Copernicus‘s theory in-fluenced the way of looking at Earth and the human place in the universe and became the basis for the deve-lopment of science.

B like Bison. The largest surviving in Europe mam-mal. The Poles have saved the bison from extinction.

C like ConstitutionIn 1791 the Poles adopted the first written Constitution, the first in Eu-rope, the second in the world.

D like diversityThe whole territory of Poland is va-ried. You can find: sandy beaches on the Baltic Sea, many lakes and pictu-resque landscapes in the mountains.

E like European UnionPoland is in the EU from 1st May 2004.

F like Flag. The Polish national colour is white and red. That’s the colour of the po-lish flag.

G like great sportsmanPolish sportsmen are: Otylia Jędrzejczak (Olympic champions in swimming distance), Adam Małysz ( the most popular polish ski-jumper), Robert Kubica (F1 driver) etc.

H like “God’s Playground, a History of Poland”, N. DaviesIt is the best known history book of Poland in English.

I like inspiration to learn polish languageThis language is known as one of the most difficult languages to learn. We have a lot of tongue-twisters. Can you repeat: suszą szosa sucha ?

J like Jagiellonian UniversityThe first polish university was found-ed in Cracow in 1364.

K like knowledgePolish mathematicians broke the sec-ret of the Enigma code (a coding ma-chine used by Nazi Germany).

L like name: LechLech Wałęsa. Poland was the first country of the communist block where the old system collapsed. Lech Wałęsa was the leader of movement.

M like millionThe population in Poland is 38,2 mil-lion people.

N like neighboursNeighbouring states: Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Russia.

O like opennessForeigners perceive Poles as a very open people. Poles make new friends easily and are warm in their relations with strangers.

P like PierogiFrom time immemorial the Poles have loved drinking and eating. Ty-pical polish cuisine is very diverse and contains e.f. oscypek (typical po-lish cheese from mountains), żur (a soup), kluski (a delicious polish pas-ta) and a lot more.

R like radiumMaria Curie-Skłodowska won two Nobel Prizes in the field of physics and chemistry. She was co-founder of radiology and discovered radium and polonium.

S like ‘Slavonic soul’Poles are considered to be people of honour, as well as vulnerable to ro-mantic impulses.

T like temperaturePoland lies in moderate climate zone. In summer (June-September) is usu-ally warm about 25-30, but in winter (October - February) the tempera-ture is dipping to -25 - -30.

U like UNESCO. The UNESCO Word Heritage Lists included e.g. Wielczka. The Wielicz-ka Salt Mine, created in the Middle Ages. For centuries, it was the source of the country’s wealth. Today, it is the most popular Polish tourist at-traction.

W like WarsawThe capital of Poland.

Z like złotyThat’s polish currency ( 1€ - 4,01 PLN).

Ą,Ć,Ę,Ł,Ń, Ó,Ś, Ź, Ż ?! Difficult? Now,I don’t think so! ;)

So you think you know Polska? Would you like to prove it? Or maybe discover it?

We invite you to Poland!

Visit websites: doyouknowpolska.comEncourage to check up: www.esn.pl, www.en.poland.gov.pl

By Iga Nowak

25

Projects & Partners

The European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning

By Noé Viedma

The European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL) gathers 24 European networks working in edu-cation and training. Together, these organisations cover all sectors of edu-cation and training including networks for higher education, vocational edu-cation and training, adult education and popular education; networks for students, school heads, parents, hu-man resources developer professio-nals, teachers and trainers. Through its members, EUCIS-LLL embodies lifelong learning.

The creation of this platform is a res-ponse from civil society organisations to the defining and implementation of a European education and training po-licy. EUCIS-LLL promotes European-wi-de cooperation among civil society or-ganisations in order to build a citizen‘s voice on lifelong learning issues and to propose concrete solutions based on the expertise, the competencies and the experience of its networks‘ experts and practitioners. It takes regular posi-tions to defend the common interests of its members. This is the case for ex-ample on the future of the education, training and youth programmes or to promote the development of Euro-pean citizenship education.

Since its creation in 2005, EUCIS-LLL has increasingly achieved more recog-nition from the EU and other relevant stakeholders, going from 6 members in 2005 to 24 in 2011. During its last

General Assembly in Krakow, EUCIS-LLL

welcomed four new members: ESN, UNIQUE, CONTACT 2103 and OBESSU. EUCIS-LLL was particularly looking for-ward to involve youth organisations in the network. The platform has grown fast and its older members are eager to maintain a “family spirit”. Indeed, EUCIS-LLL represents a great oppor-tunity for its members to know each other and also to share knowledge on a regular, friendly and structured ba-sis. Gina Ebner, EUCIS-LLL President, said that “Looking back at the last few years, I see that being able to work together represents a real change. By exchanging views we can find simila-rities but we can also bring new ideas and solutions to the challenges we are facing today.”

The platform is also a tool to promote a holistic vision of lifelong learning, from cradle to grave, that is not limited to formal education but integrates non-formal and informal learning. By brin-ging together actors from all sectors and levels of education and training, EUCIS-LLL contributes to an increased flexibility between systems. Youth or-ganisations such as the Erasmus Stu-dent Network (ESN) is a good example as they are bridging non-formal educa-tion - through the involvement of stu-dent volunteers in their projects - and formal education - by connecting Uni-versities and students across Europe. The platform fosters a vision of lifelong learning that promotes equity, social cohesion and active citizenship. It be-lieves that the objectives of education and training should not only be descri-

bed in terms of employability or economic growth but also as a framework for personal develop-ment. It is essential to raise awareness on the fact that lifelong learning should include a large range of lear-ning settings and create more complementarity and continuity between formal, non-formal and informal learning.

EUCIS-LLL organises conferences, pub-lic hearings and seminars on transver-sal topics on lifelong learning. In 2011, the platform tackled issues such as vo-lunteering in education and training, the impact of transnational mobility to foster personal, social and civic compe-tences. Furthermore, since 2010 three working groups were set on the “soci-al dimension of E&T”, on “EU tools & competences” and on the “sustainabi-lity of lifelong learning”. These working groups are composed of experts and practitioners coming from its member networks. They allowed the platform to strengthen exchanges amongst its members and to make innovative pro-posals to decision-makers. The key messages that emerge from EUCIS-LLL meetings and activities are communi-cated to EU institutions via our posi-tion papers or via meetings with their representatives.

Last but not least, the platform advoca-tes for a stronger consultation and par-ticipation of organised civil society at all levels of policy-making. It is active in civil society groups in order to promote these ideas as well as to raise aware-ness on the role of lifelong learning, notably to develop European active citizenship. It is a member of the Civil Society Contact Group and the Euro-pean Economic and Social Committee Liaison Group. EUCIS-LLL believes that student networks such as ESN, OBES-SU or ESU should be consulted auto-matically when a policy paper is to be prepared in a field that concerns them directly. This should be the case for all European civil society stakeholders and EUCIS-LLL is constantly striving to make it happen.

26

Events & Experiences

The Sunny National Event on Crete by ESN Greece

by Despina Vachari

After long discussions and several inte-resting suggestions everyone in the Na-tional Platform of ESN Greece agreed that Crete was the place for OUR first National Event.The local section in Crete, ESN Tei of Crete is composed of some crazy and responsible men and a courageous treasurer, Georgia. The section is loca-ted in Heraklion, the capital of Crete, a city of dubious beauty, in which I personally would disagree as, sun and fun is always there and nobody would doubt this.The rendezvous was set to be at the port of Piraeus for the non-Cretan participants. About 140 Erasmus stu-dents and ESNers from Thessaloniki and Athens met in front of the ferry and were ready to depart for their trip. A long and inte-resting sleepless night was fore-seen, as the par-ticipants were about to meet all together for the first time and start the journey to the magnifi-cent island. For this reason our sponsor had already been waiting for us at the port and free energy drinks were distributed to the participants. We arrived early in the morning, left our tiredness behind and let the fun begin. (Εδώ μήπως να προσθετες πως ενοθήκατε με Τους Κρητικούς ερασμους και esners και τον τελικο αριθμό υποψηφίων?). First stop was Elounda where we took the boat for a short cruise around Spinalong, a his-toric island and ended up at Kolokitha, a small, almost private beach. The sea was a bit cold but not cold enough to keep us from swimming, diving and playing games in the sandy beach. Time to go? No, not before the bar-beque! Food is always good and the way back to Elounda was short. One of the most famous beach bars of Cre-te was open only to National Event participants and despite our tiredness and our will to lay and relax on the sun beds music got loud soon and we took the challenge. Our first day ended

with an unforgettable party by the sea with us dancing and singing our favo-rite songs and watching the sunset on the background. For the second day aqua-park was the main attrac-tion. With a few absences (people who chose an alternative sightseeing schedule on the famous ancient palace of Knossos) we departed for Watercity. Waterslides with names like harry cane, black who-le, high-speed fast and fas-ter and other crazy staff but also lazy river and peaceful swimming pools soon were full of Erasmus students testing their limits, testing their friends limits or even testing our limits. We

had much fun but time goes by so quickly and it was al-ready time to get back to the hotel. We

had just few free time to get ready and enjoy the pre-party (there’s always a pre-party) next to the pool and a my-thical party organized exclusively by “ESN Tei of Crete” took place at the ΤΕΙ. All you could see around was glowing cheeks from the morning sun and hap-py faces dancing to the groove. We slept for less than three hours but sleeping was not included in the sche-dule. So next morning, last day of the National Event and is already the time to check out from the hotel. Last stop Matala, a beach on the southern part of the island; known for the hippies that used to live the caves scalped on the cliffs. The sea is amazing there as it is an open gulf to the Libyan sea; the

sun was shining and the beach almost perfect. You could see the difference: on your right hand, the caves where the hippies used to live in the early 70s and on your left hand cute cafes and bars on pirate style are open all day and night long. So we had chosen one of these bars to say the last good-bye before taking the road to home. By early afternoon we found the best way to say goodbye to the beautiful island with a bikini party! Our yellow

bracelets were still on our wrists and soon mojito started getting in our minds. Like this we started the hippie hippie shake and said some sweet goodbyes. It was al-ready 6 p.m and we had to hurry to catch our ferry. Inside all of us were wishing to miss the ferry and stay in the island forever but we all knew that the office of “ESN Tei of Crete” was too small to accommo-date us all…

As one farewell is never enough, we continue our group hugs, goodbyes and promises to meet again next year at the port of Heraklion. Time to get in the ferry, the journey back seems shor-ter as we all sleep and dream we are still in Crete. We wake up at the port of Piraeus and the first National Event of ESN Greece is officially over.

Special thanks to the “ESN Tei of Crete” for their great work, to Rania Chantzopoulou and the Greek web-team for the help with regis-tration system, to Orestis Vlachos for the lo-gos and the graphics, to the sections of ESN Greece for the support and to all the partici-pants for the great moments.

27

Translation

Artıq vaxtdır...Mübadilə edək və dəyişək...

By Nurlan Əhmədov

Bildiyimiz kimi təhsil sistemi-nin inkişafına bir çox amillər təsir göstərir ki, bunların sırasında ən vaci-bi mübadilə proqramlarıdır. Mübadilə proqramları sayəsində fərqli təhsil sisteminə, mədəniyyətə , tarixə ma-lik olan dövlətlərin inteqrasiyası baş verir. Həmin proqramlar içərisində tələbə mübadiləsinin sayına görə Eras-mus xüsusilə seçilir. Lakin bu cür pro-qramlar sırf Avropa Birliyi daxilində deyil, 3-cü tip ölkələri də özündə eh-tiva etməlidir. Əlbəttə buna bir sıra məsələlər maneə yaradır. Maliyyə, Viza problemi, məsafənin uzaqlığı, diplomların tanınması və müxtəlif vaxt-larda verilməsi və s. Belə ki, təhsilin keyfiyyətində olan fərqlər mübadilə proqramlarının sərhədlərinin əsasən Avropa daxilində məhdudlaşdırılması ilə nəticələnir. Bu problemləri kon-frans, seminarlarda müzakirə etməklə onların həlli istiqamətlərini müəyyənləşdirmək lazımdır. Lakin, problemlərin həlli konfransların möv-zusu olaraq qalmamalı, dövlətlərin təhsil qurumları, universitetlərin idarə heyətləri tərəfindən həll edilməlidir. Hər bir universitet öz tələbələrinin mübadilə proqramlarında iştirakında maraqlı olmalıdırlar. 1 semestr və ya 1 il mübadilə proqramında iştirak etmək həm də maliyyə baxımından 3 və ya 4 il xaricdə təhsil almaqdan daha əlverişlidir. Buna görə də özəl şirkətlər də bu proqramların effektli fəaliyyəti üçün maliyyə yardım ayırmalıdırlar. Çünki statiskaya nəzər yetirsək mübadilə proqramlarının iştirakçıları iş tapmaqda çətinlik çəkmirlər və onların şansı digərlərinə nisbətən daha çox olur.

31 May 2011 – ci ildə Erasmus Tələbə Şəbəkəsinin üzv olan Bakı Beynəlxalq Tələbə Klubu tərəfindən həyata keçirilən Azərbaycanda təhsil alan xarici tələbələrin 1-ci Forumunun da məqsədi bu problemlərin həllini müəyyənləşdirməkdən olmuşdur. Belə ki, forum müddətində tələbələr öz problemləri barədə danışmış və daha yaxşı təhsil üçün təkliflərini vermişlər. Tədbirin mədəniyyət hissəsində isə müxtəlif ölkələrin mədəniyyətlərini

özündə əks etdirən nümunələr göstərilmişdir. Bu cür tədbirlərin keçirilməsi dövlətdə olan təhsil qurumlarını mübadilə proqramlarına daha çox diqqət yetirməyə imkan verir.

Nəzərə alsaq ki, Odlar Yurdumuz – Azərbaycan Asiya və Avropanın qovşağında yerləşir , onda Avropa , Asiya, və digər qitələrlə əməkdaşlığı gücləndirmək üçün geniş imkanlar vardır. Qeyd etmək istərdim ki, hər birimizin ümumi məqsədi daha çox öyrənmək və daha çox öyrətmək olmalıdır. Bu baxımdan, bütün dünya dövlətləri əməkdaşlığı gücləndirməli , sülh şəraitində yaşamalı və fikirləri, mədəniyyətləri , təhsili mübadilə etməlidirlər.

Və Yadda Saxlayın !!! – Qloballaşma - başqalarına hörmət etmək, mübadilə etmək və daha yaxşıya dəyişməkdir... Artıq vaxtdır ...

28

Translation

It is Time Already …

Let’s Exchange and Change…By Nurlan Ahmadov

As we know there are so many things that influence the deve-lopment of an education system , one of the important things among them is exchange programmes . The integrati-on of different societies with different education systems, culture and history,

and this is being realized with the help of exchange programmes. Erasmus is unique amongst such programmes for the sheer number of students that par-ticipate and its effectivness. However, such programmes shouldn’t act only inside Europe , it must go beyond bor-ders and contain other countries. In-deed, there are challenges that create barriers: financial, Visa problems, the distance, recongnition of diplomas, and the variety on times of giving di-plomas. So, diversity on quality educa-tion results in exchange programmes being limited to Europe. With discus-sion about such problems at confe-rences might help to find solutions for these issues. But, the theme of the conference shouldn’t stay only as for-mal documents, such problems sholuld be solved by the administrative staff of universities and other education instu-tions. The main aim of every university should be on the participation of their students in such programmes.

Moreover , the private sector and com-panies can also contribute with finan-cial support to such projects. Statistics show that participants of mobility pro-grammes don’t meet any difficulties on finding jobs and they have more chan-ces than others.

The main aim of the 1st Republican Forum of Foreign students studying in Azerbaijan which took place on 31st May 2011 in Baku, oganized by ESN Baku ( Baku International Student Club

) was to discuss problems and suggest their proposals for the getting better quality education.

At the cultural part of the ceremony there were cultural performances by representatives of different countries. Such events help to get more support for the mobility programmes from the educational instutions. Considering, the Land of Fire- Azerbai-jan is situated between Asia and Euro-pe , there are more possibilities to re-inforce cooperation with all continents.

All of us has a common idea: To learn more and to teach more. So, all of the countries have to reinforce cooperati-on , live in peace and exchange ideas, culture and education.

And, Remember !!! – Globalization is to respect others , exchange and to be changed for the better...İt is time alrea-dy...

29

Recipe

For 4 persons:

500g beans (preferably white ones)

500g smoked meat (sausages, pork the interior part of the back leg with bone)

100ml vegetable oil

2 onions

1 red pepper

2 carrots

2-3 tomatoes (or 400g of canned tomatoes)

pickled cucumbers

1 laurel leave

thyme

pepper beans

parsley

dill

salt

It is a very popular dish in many

regions in Romania and people

prepare it especially around the

Christmas holidays, when the

pork and sausages are freshly

smoked. On our National Day,

1st December, it can be found

being served at different celeb-

rations in the cities.

Let the beans soak in cold water

for 8 hours or the night before

starting to cook them.

Put them in a pot and add

enough water to cover them.

When the water starts to boil,

change it with a new cold one –

do this twice.

The third water should be a bit

more than covering the beans,

let it boil well.

Separately, boil the smoked

meat until it comes off the bone

and then cut it into large pieces.

Cut the onions into small pieces,

the carrots into thin round sli-

ces, the pepper into cubes, the

sausages into 5cm pieces and

fry all of them in oil with the

meat for 5 minutes.

When the beans are half boiled

(check if they have a slightly

hard texture), put them to-

gether with the fried vegetab-

les, half of the water

in which the beans

were boiled and

half from the one

of the meat, grated tomatoes,

the laurel leave, thyme and pep-

per beans in a thermo-resistant

vessel.

Add salt to taste and put in the

oven at a medium temperature.

Let it cook until the water eva-

porates and the sauce is creamy.

Serve it hot, season it with fresh

cut parsley and dill and don’t

forget the pickled cucumbers

next to it.

All that’s left is to wish you to

enjoy your meal with the Roma-

nian “Poftă bună!”.

Beans with smoked meat and sausages

By Nicoleta Popa

30

So, three months into your Erasmus experience and I bet you’ve had many incredible experiences already. Met amazing people, seen amazing places, done amazing things... I was an Erasmus student myself, and I know how great that excitement feels. Now, I’ve got a little something to share with you that’s going to make your heart beat even faster.

We at 9flats.com have just partnered with ESN to help you get even more from your year abroad. Who is 9flats.com? We’re a young, dynamic website offering a whole new approach to travelling. Through us, you can rent out another person’s spare room, flat or mountain hut for your trips, anywhere in the world. The idea behind it is that you can stay anywhere you choose to, without having to book a hostel or hotel and can therefore travel like a real local. All of this is summed up in our slogan “The clever alternative to hotels”, which you may have seen around. You can even rent out your place with us while you’re away, and earn some extra holiday money.

SEE (EVEN MORE OF) EUROPE WITH 9FLATS.COM

Insider travel tips, competitions and moreYou know what though? The excitement doesn’t stop there. As part of this collaboration, during the next few months we’ll be giving away nearly 4,000 travel vouchers to our Facebook fans, each worth €50!! Our first competition took place in early December and asked Erasmus students to let us know: What’s the most amazing place you’ve discovered on Erasmus? We got some really great answers from students all over Europe, from the “nicest cafe in the world” in Munich to a brewery in an old bath house in Amsterdam. You’ll find our best ones on Facebook if you’re looking for inspiration for your future Erasmus trips.

If you missed this competition, don’t worry. We’re already busy planning the second one. This means there’ll soon be another chance for you to win one of our many vouchers and read more amazing insider travel tips shared by students like yourself. Best to make your way over to our Facebook page now, like us and always be the first to hear the news.

I imagine that’s quite a lot to take in. But worry not, to better understand the idea behind 9flats, have a look at our ‘About’ pages on 9flats.com, and watch our cute ‘How it works’ video. Or search for us on YouTube and let our guests and hosts tell you what it’s all about.

For now I’d like to wish you a fantastic Erasmus year (it may very well be the best of your life) and hope that 9flats can help you explore every furthest corner of Europe while you’re here.

Katharina Regner, Erasmus co-ordinator, 9flats.com

Enter competitionwww.facebook.com/9flatsstudents

Ah, so it’s like CouchSurfing? Kind of but not quite. 9flats offers more...

Privacy: renting your own flat can be more relaxing at the end of a long day.

Safety: with secure online payment (no cash) and reviews and recommendations of hosts.

Convenience: detailed place descriptions, descriptive filters and integrated Google Maps make it quick and easy to choose a flat.

Personality: Trendy? Artsy? Homely? Find the flat that suits you.

During the next few months we’ll be giving away nearly 4,000 travel vouchers to our Facebook fans, each worth €50!”

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Meet the Board

Meet the Board 2011/2012 By Josefin Svensson

With big shoes to fill they were elected during the AGM in Budapest in the end of March 2011. In the beginning of July they came to Brussels for a tough and intense knowledge transfer week and the 15th it was time for them to stand on their own as the Board of Erasmus Student Network. With the support of the committees, Liaison Officers, CNR, National Boards and most importantly the sections they live ESN 24/7 working for the good of the network.

During their presentations infront of the AGM they showed their dedication and motivation and Tania, Katja, Dami-en, Josefin and Fabian got the trust of the network for a year mandate.

When you live and work for an orga-nisation like the Board is doing for the year of their mandate it is important with dedication and a good team. „It‘s great to work with such a dedicated team and to feel the ESN spirit wheree-ver I go“ says Tania. For such and inten-se experience it is important to have the support of the team. A great sour-ce of inspiration for all of the Board Members is the network. ESNers is all countries dedicate a great amount of their time and sometimes their studies or job has to suffer for the good of the network and students.

It might be weird to think, but they all live and work together in the so-called capital of Europe, Brussels - a place which offers a unique enviornment close to the EU insitutions and like ESN a wide variety of people from different cultural bakgrounds. Living in the ESN house, working in the ESN office with the same people can sometimes be dif-ficult - we fight sometimes, but most of the time we make up fast again and at the end of the day we are all friends.

Ironically enough, the house and the office are located on the metro line 5 so that everyday going to the office is litterally going to/on Erasmus.

Part of the job is representation so it requires a lot of travelling, most of the Board Members spent half of Septem-ber month abroad. „I love travelling and if it wasn‘t for all the emails when you come back it would be perfect“ says Katja. When the Board is not travelling the daily work in Brus-sels as you might have guessed takes place in the ESN office whe-

re the Board Members work together with the secretariat. Along with the ge-neral Board tasks there are more spe-cific parts of the jobs that are tied to each position so that each person is an expert in their field.

If you want to know more about the work of the Board, please drop an email to board@esn.org or one of the Board Members.

Board 2011/2012Tania Berman (France) - President

Katja Krohn (Germany) - Vice PresidentDamien Lamy-Preto (France) - Treasurer

Josefin Svensson (Sweden) - Communication ManagerFabian Bircher (Switzerland) - Web Project Administrator

From the top: Fabian Bircher (Switzerland), Damien Lamy-Preto (France), Josefin Svensson (Sweden), Tania Berman (France) and Katja Krohn (Germany).

Did you know that?*The Board Members receive an average of 70 emails per day*The Board Members make an average of 3 trips abroad per month*With food, Katja is the most picky person*Damien stayed in the Board for a second year.*Fabian gives out free hugs, „I gave out count-less hugs to the whole network, but I am far from done“

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Meet the Board

New Board - New HouseBy Josefin Svensson

The 15th of July the new board star-ted their mandate – the same day it was already time to pack everything and start writing ESN history in the third ESN house since ESN arrived to Brussels back in 2005.

The preparations and finding the house started already months earlier a job led by Damien and the former board - in July it was official. On the morning of Friday the 15th of July the moving began. The guys got up early to pick up the huge van and the rest started pa-cking and demounting all the furniture. After going to IKEA three times, driving back and forth between the old and new house with huge loads, getting chased down the street by a neighbor with an axe most things were finally at

the new location. Now it was time to actually assemble the furniture and furnish the house. Furnishing the living room proved to be a more difficult task than anticipa-ted, as the room was actually 3 times bigger than the previous one – by pla-cing all the couches of the the previous house and the office it looked ok, kind of. Assembling the same wardrobe twice, using all the manpower of ESN to hoist the wardrobes to the fourth floor and placing bigger pile of gar-bage than allowed on the street were needed before finalizing. So with some minor hiccups the job was finished over one weekend.

The house, like the old house is still located on metro line 5 - leaving the irony of taking metro #5, direction ERASMUS in the morning when going to the office. The new house consists of 7 bedrooms, 4 bathroom, a HUGE living room, dining room, kitchen and a big basement and now serves as home for the 5 board members, the board secretary, space for an intern and occasionally the many guests, ESNers from all over Europe.

Want to visit?If you are interested in being one of the many guests, please contact the secretariat (secretariat@esn.org). And don’t forget to send us postcards from your travels! Rue Major Petillon 22, 1040 Etterbeek, Belgium

33

Photo

DO YOU WANT YOUR PHOTO HERE?

Then send your photos to:

photo@esn.org34

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

1. What prize did ESN win for its project SocialErasmus?

2. What is the name of the new secre-tary working for ESN in Brussels?

3. The 36th country in ESN is?

4. The second associate member of ESN is from which South American city?

5. What city will the SocialErasmus co-ordinators meeting be held?

6. What is the name of the Italian Ex-changeAbility activity?

7. The website template of ESN is called?

8. The newest commercial partner of ESN is?

9. What is the name of the administ-rative grant ESN International receives each year?

10. Which German city was host to the German National Event ‘ESNters the city in December 2011?

11. Where in Spain will AGM 2012 be held?

12. What kind of grant is SocialErasmus funded by

13. Which is the only EU country not in ESN

Quiz

DO YOU WANT YOUR PHOTO HERE?

Then send your photos to:

photo@esn.org

If you solved the puzzle, please send it to us, the first answer we receive will get a price!

Send it to:Erasmus Student NetworkRue Hydraulique 15B-1210, BrusselsBelgium

Name the future of the Erasmus Programme...!

Fill the vertical lines (beginning with the first letter from the top and going to the bottom) with the replies from the questions 1 to 11. The horizontal marked line will give you the answer to the question

35

This project has been funded with support from the European Comission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein